There are baseball fans in Alaska. It’s true! And until this year they were able to see 150 Mariners games a year on the Root Sports cable network. The big cable operator up there just dropped Root Sports, however, and added MLB Network. Which led to this:

The switch, though, means GCI customers will no longer be able to view Seattle Mariners games on Root Sports, which televises the club’s games and is the designated RSN for Alaska, despite being 1,700 miles from Washington state. Mariners games are blacked out in Alaska on MLB Network.

So there it is, Alaska baseball fans. If you want to see the Mariners, just pop on down to Seattle. Depending on which style projection map you use, it doesn’t look all that far.

Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reports Thursday that the Orioles “are said to have begun fielding calls of interest” on superstar Manny Machado and “are close to the point of seriously weighing whether to trade him.”

You’d think it would be a no-brainer for the last-place O’s to flip Machado — an impending free agent — for prospects, but Heyman notes there is “still a question whether or not longtime Orioles owner Peter Angelos” will give the go-ahead. One person familiar with the situation put it a “50-50” likelihood. Another suggested that it would take a massive return, which, sure.

Machado entered play Thursday with a sensational .328/.405/.635 batting line, 15 home runs, and an MLB-leading 43 RBI in 49 games. It’d be a real shock if he’s still wearing an O’s uniform by the end of July.

Heyman reported previously that at least nine teams made aggressive plays for Machado this winter, including the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Indians, Diamondbacks, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, and Cardinals. A whole lot of those teams still make sense here in late May — maybe all of them except the White Sox.